ALTAMONTE SPRINGS — A year after news outlets excitedly reported the lights were on inside the Majesty Building, the skyscraper in Altamonte Springs known as the “Eyesore on I-4,” the owner says there is still no official opening date.
Claud Bowers, founder and president of WACX SuperChannel 55, the religious independent TV station that owns the 18-story building that’s been under construction since 2001, told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday said it’ll be completed at “whatever time is best to bring it online” and right now is “not the time.”
Bowers blamed other projects going on around the property, including the I-4 Ultimate widening work and nearby office buildings, that he said have hampered access to the property and made it difficult to find workers.
“This is the most challenging time probably in the history of Orlando to try to construct,” Bowers said, referencing the new I-4 access to Central Parkway. He said when the building opens depends on when construction of the ramps there is completed.
When — and if — the Majesty Building is finished, it will be 300,000 square feet and stand 307 feet tall, the tallest building in Seminole County. Plans for the building show 200,000 square feet of office space, as well as room for restaurants, retail shops, a theater, banquet hall and studio space for SuperChannel’s station. There will also be a 1,000-car parking garage.
“When it’s finished and people walk in it, it’ll be a world-class building,” Bowers said.
The project is pay-as-you-go, and so far debt-free, Bowers said. When it started, the plan was to build the structure in two years with an estimated price tag of $40 million. The total cost is “certainly above that now,” Bowers said, not wanting to specify how far above.
Contributions to the station mostly have funded the project, stirring progress when donations come in and slowing it when money runs dry.
But Bowers said he isn’t frustrated over the many delays, and that construction on the property has never stopped.
“A building of this size and expense, it takes a lot of money,” Bowers said.
In 2003, Bowers told the Sentinel the project would be done in a year. In 2006, he said it would be the year after that. In 2010, almost a decade after construction started, Bowers announced the Majesty would be tenant ready in 2012.
Then in 2016, he said it would be another year and a half. And most recently, in February 2017, Bowers said the project would come to an end in just another year and a half.
Bowers now says all that’s left is finishing the parking garage, some construction to the outside and interior work, the same projects he’s cited in past progress reports. On Friday, much of the ground floor entrance to the building, which will feature a rotunda and brick roundabout, was still in mid-construction.
Altamonte Springs city manager Franklin Martz said the city would like to see the building done sooner, but he understands that I-4 construction is a “barrier.”
“We want the outside done so at least for our residents who drive by, it no longer looks like a construction project,” he said.
Despite the project’s setbacks, Martz said Bowers has met all inspection and code requirements. He lauded Bower’s mission to build the “signature building” without taking on any debt.
“They continue to move forward,” Martz said. “Altamonte Springs is very happy to have debt-free construction of that magnitude happening in our neighborhood.”
Martz expects the facade to be finished in the next couple months and that SuperChannel will move into the studio within the year. An opening date would likely have to wait until the interstate work nearby is completed, though, he said.
Got a news tip? You can email Caroline at cglenn@orlandosentinel.com or call 407-420-5685, and follow her on Twitter @bycarolineglenn.
